The Gradual Interview

[aliantha]

Agreed. I dunno how many here have had the experience of being pestered to death by a fictional character who *insists* that you tell his/her story rightnowTODAY. SRD may be referring to something like that...

[Seareach]

I agree with rdhopeca. Possibly a bad turn of phrase by Donaldson.

agreed

[dlbpharmd]

Robert A. DeFrank: Just out of curiosity, what would the title of Covenant's first book have been?

Also, any idea what the story would have been about?

Sorry. Your guess is as good as mine. I only--all together now--invent what I need.

(11/03/2009)

[StevieG]

I think I could have answered that question safely enough - getting to know the answers

I was surprised by the out of desperation comment, but I think you've all explained that one.

... and excited about the vastly different ending of the last chronicles. So, when does the countdown to AATE begin?

[wayfriend]

Interesting answer.

Michael from Santa Fe: You've said many times that you only create what you need, as far as any back story you may reference in your books. But I don't know if you've touched on how detailed you must make it, for yourself, to use it. For example, in Lord Foul's Bane you mention the Elohim and the Sandgorgons. They don't show up until the Second Chronicles, which at the time you wrote Lord Foul's Bane you didn't even know you were going to write. So, when you wrote about them in LFB, did you have any ideas at all about them, other than just a name a few details you mention in the text? Did you have in your mind what a Sandgorgon looked like, so when it came to the Second Chronicles you decided, "hey, I can use those cool desert creatures with the battering ram heads I thought of in the First Chronicles?" Or did you, in writing the Second, have to figure out exactly what you meant by a "Sandgorgon"?

• I find that my writing life works out better if I "only create what need," and if I create *only* what I need. The Elohim and Sandgorgons in LFB are perfect examples. At the time, all I created were the names--and a hint or two of context (e.g. the word "faery," or a reference to the Great Desert). Nothing else. So when I decided to write "The Second Chronicles," I was free to "mine" the first trilogy for whatever nuggets I could find, and then forge those nuggets into whatever I needed.
  
  But "The Second Chronicles" has caused problems because from time to time I created more than the absolute minimum required by the story. I did this because I *thought* I knew the story for "The Last Chronicles," and I *thought* I was preparing for my eventual intentions. Well, I *did* know the story--in broad terms. But I neglected to foresee the possibility (the likelihood?) that in the 20+ intervening years I would come up with *better* ideas for details and back story than the ones I (unnecessarily) wrote into "The Second Chronicles". As a result, the "mining" and "forging" operations in "The Last Chronicles" have been far more arduous than they would have been if I had exercised the same restraint in the second trilogy that I did in the first.
  
  <sigh>
  
  (11/16/2009)

[Usivius]

very cool question! Thanks. And quite (rare) insightful answer from Mr. D.

[Believer]

I seem to recall SRD saying that he is forced to write by certain ideas -- he doesn't pick his ideas, they pick him. And somewhere he said that while he had the idea of the Last Chronicles for 20 years, he delayed actually writing them, letting other ideas instead bubble to the surface, take control, and be written. My guess is that other ideas refused to come to fruition, like the Last Chronicles suppressed the others so that he would finally write them. So out of desperation, since he had to make money by writing something, he finally tackled the story.

He has said other times that he felt that even if he wasn't quite ready, he had to start telling the story now so it wouldn't be too late. But I personally like the idea of the Last Chronicles holding any other ideas hostage. like, yeah, you've got a few glimmers of interesting ideas there, but they're not developing any further until you write us, mister!!

[matrixman]

Unfortunately for his financial well-being, SRD waited too long to write the Last Chronicles. Yes, he will be paid for writing it, but he's not going to be swimming in money. This is not a judgment against SRD, just an observation that time has not been kind to his popularity as an author. It's not his fault that the fickle reading public that once embraced him has in large measure deserted him. Sure, SRD is nominally still a "bestselling" author, but when junk like Eragon outsells the Last Chrons books by some undoubtedly obscene amount (and promptly gets made into a movie no less), "bestselling" becomes an empty word. You know you've missed the boat when you can't even rely on the Chronicles to capture the public imagination anymore. So I feel bad for SRD. I wish he would be richly rewarded for the Last Chronicles, but that's not gonna happen, unless he somehow achieves Robert Jordan-like popularity between now and the release of AATE. Or even Chris Paolini-like popularity. And that's an awful thing to say. The funny thing is, I would likely never have learned how poorly the Last Chronicles were selling (compared to the previous books) if SRD himself hadn't revealed the numbers on the GI. So I have to applaud his willingness to share such ego-bruising information, but I almost wish I could go back to my comfortable delusion that SRD was a rich and powerful dude in the industry who wrote at his leisure.

[kevinswatch]

-jay

[Orlion]

One of the things that I like about SRD's writing style is also what I feel is his downfall as far as sales. SRD's books have set-up, like most great writers before him (Tolstoy comes to mind), but the reading public doesn't want set-up...it seems slow to them. Heck, that's why a lot of readers abandoned Jordan's Wheel of Time series (at least one of the reasons).

[Usivius]

and, as SRD said himself, regardless of how his books are butchered in a movie format, it cannot help but bring attention to them and almost always cause an increase in sales.
So, here's hoping SOMETHING of his gets picked up.
I vote for Mordant's Need series. I would LOVE to see that made!

[StevieG]

Another explanation re movie adaptations...

Mike S.: Regarding your observation on consulting time for the Gap option: "So why did I agree to any of this in the first place? Well, frankly, I can use the money. But here's the real issue: even a crap movie gives a major boost to book sales (which is what I really care about)."

Well said! Whether you love or hate the book and it's author, I'm sure L. Ron Hubbard would agree with you on "Battlefield: Earth". That was the absolute worst so-called "adaptation" of a scifi book ever made (could Travolta have possibly picked a more terrible movie to "star" in?). But I'm also certain that the movie enticed more than one viewer to take his wheelbarrow to the local bookstore and bring home the book (physically, it's a monster that should have been three or more volumes).

Anyway, as a reader I have no vote in any such arrangements. However, should either your Gap or TC options get picked up I hope that you exercise as much firm creative control as you can over YOUR stories and characters.

Why? Well, bad movies from good books make good money, but as a fan I would hate to see either series become the laughing-stock parody that Battlefield: Earth became for the late Mr. Hubbard.

Without your guidance, I see no way either "movie" could succeed. With your guidance? Well, I've already mentioned one bad example. You could also ask Mike Straczynski if exercising creative control over "Babylon 5" helped make it a success (it did). Conversely, Joss Whedon can tell you just how fast a good story can turn into a bad train wreck when you lose "creative ownership" of YOUR idea to a studio ("Firefly" and "Dollhouse" come to mind...).

Intellectually, I understand the need to earn a living. Emotionally, I hope to never see any of your characters or stories needlessly prostituted into "crap films" because a studio thinks that mucking with the story can make them MORE money.

Anyhoo, thank you for sharing your stories with the rest of us, and I look forward to reading the next installment of TLC.

Mike S.


I appreciate your perspective on the situation. But in addition to the other things I've said on other occasions, I have a particular problem that I don't think I've mentioned before. Working with committees drives me to distraction. No, wait a minute. That wasn't it. (I got distracted.) The problem is that my entire head and psyche are full to bursting with "The Last Chronicles". Wrenching myself out of that mindset in order to deal with issues pertaining to the GAP books requires a form of mental violence that I find exasperating (at best): a problem compounded by the fact that I haven't actually read the GAP books in over a decade, so I don't always remember them clearly enough to provide accurate "guidance" for a movie person. If issues pertaining to a GAP movie came to my attention at a time when I wasn't immersed in a completely different story, I might conceivably find the challenge less troublesome. But as matters stand, I really can't tolerate significant interruptions to my concentration on "The Last Chronicles".

(12/11/2009)

[matrixman]

Good Q&A!

Don't mean to start a debate over gender stereotypes, but in the case of SRD, we're lucky to have a guy who operates with a one-track mind (as a writer).

If anybody "significantly" interrupts SRD's concentration on the Last Chronicles, Watchers should hunt down the person and do things to said person that would probably violate the Oath of Peace.

[Menolly]

Every time an answer like that is forthcoming from SRD, I sit back and shake my head at how fortunate we as fans are to have such an accessible and open (for a man who cherishes his privacy) method of communicating with him.

I mean, how many of us would be willing to admit we are so single minded we couldn't cooperate on such a project to ourselves, much less to the general public? I don't know if I could do it...

[wayfriend]

I know that we have discussed the "who has more percipience" issue at one time or another.

Unpech: Is Linden's own percipience more acute/effective/powerful than that which "once informed and guided all the people of the Land"? I.e. her health-sense unaugmented by other powers, periapts, etc. It 'seems' to be more powerful, but I do not recall any passage(s) where this is clearly stated.

Very much looking forward to the next installment!

• My own perception has always been that Linden has more than most when it comes to natural, unaugmented "health-sense". (More than, say, the Old Lords? Who knows? Personally, I don't need answers to questions like that. But more than the Haruchai? In that comparison, I would say that she's more "sensitive" rather than more "discerning". She may not *see* more, but she *feels* what she sees more.) She has unique abilities which make her uniquely vulnerable to Lord Foul's manipulations, especially in "The Second Chronicles".
  
  (12/18/2009)

("My own perception ..." Get it? Get it?)

[aliantha]

So that would be SRD's percipience working, then?

[Relayer]

Anonymous: Was Jeremiah orignally planned to be a central character in 3rd chronicles as you wrote the 2nd chronicles? Or was he "mined" as you went through and reviewed the 2nd chronicles and throught about what to write in 3rd chronicles?

Jeremiah was "mined". My original conception for "The Last Chronicles" all those years ago was more than just a sketch, but it was far from being a "whole" story. Actually writing the present story has required a great deal of invention, some of it "mined," some of it forged from entirely new ores.

(12/18/2009)

[wayfriend]

Jeremiah was "mined".

Hmm... I wonder how much, though. For example, SRD may have planned originally that Linden would have a son, but did not come up with the idea of adopting one of the ritual children until he went a-minin'. Or he may have not planned anything like a son for Linden at all. Probably the latter. But if so, I worry that that would make Jeremiah a mere McGuffin. I don't think he is: the story seems very centered around sons. Which is why I wonder.

[aliantha]

I'm guessing you're at least partially right, WF. SRD has said that he didn't have the experience to write the Last Chrons right after the 2nd Chrons. I surmise that's because he wanted to include the next generation in the Last Chrons and he hadn't had the experience of raising kids of his own yet.

[Relayer]

That may be a good question to ask him. Certainly many of SRD's objectives and focus have changed during the 20 years between series due to his life and experiences. We don't even know if Roger was a part of the original plan...